My Experience
My Parents say I started drawing as soon as I could hold a crayon. I found them delicious, but eventually started using them for their intended purpose. Drawing was always something I just did- like Tommy Lee banging on pots and pans, but without the successful career. My junior Highschool art teacher, Lester Lee, encouraged me to take it more seriously and I began trying to hone whatever skills I had.
I studied Industrial design in college in the late 1900's, and had a few jobs in fabrication that taught me how to use all the tools and materials it takes to be completely rudderless and creatively overstimulated. Eventually my creative jobs turned into management, meetings, drudgery, and my decision to go into aviation as a way to finance my hobbies.
My Mediums
I have painted hundreds of watercolors, dozens of acrylics, and several oils, but the pencil has always been my favorite. It's the most unforgiving, but can be the most rewarding medium. Drawing is the basis for every kind of art and the pencil is the basis of that basis, so I start every project with a pencil. In some cases that leads to the pen, the digitizing tablet, a 3d rendering, computer controlled laser things with scary cutting heads and expensive attachments, loud noises, swearing, and sometimes beauty.
As far as woodworking, I like to choose wood based on more than appearance. Sometimes its the right wood for the project based on physical characteristics, but its really great when I can make a chair out of oak that fell in grandpa's yard after it was hit by lightning in the 80s, causing the carport to burn down. Nobody likes carports, but we can agree that chairs are useful.
